Text 18145, 141 rader
Skriven 2008-12-20 23:26:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: Re: CARLESS  81220
==========================
-=> Quoting Glen Jamieson to Jim Weller <=-

 -=> Quoting Jim Weller to Glen Jamieson <=-
 
 JW> We have three routes that are active during workday mornings and
 JW> afternoons for commuters and one infrequent circuitous route evenings
 JW> and weekends. I don't use it as my hours and destinations are
 JW> irregular and I often chauffeur customers.

 GJ> Understood.  At least you and Roslind have that bus service available
 GJ> for getting essential supplies when you are old and infirm.

Or we can sell our house and buy a condo apt downtown, unless
Neekha is available to drive us around in her Porche 911.

 JW> Lots of people here have no vehicle and spend maybe $20 on
 JW> cabs on Saturday while shopping.

 GJ> That would be quite a significant addition to the shopping budget.

You can't run a car on $20 per week. 
 
 GJ> My first wife used to sometimes threaten her father with pushing his
 GJ> wheelchair off a cliff.

If Neekha reads this she will threaten me that way!


MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: Chinotto
Categories: Italian, Alcohol, Beverages
  Servings: 8 bottles

   1.75 l  bottle of Devils Springs 160
           proof vodka
      2    tangerines
      1    white grapefruit
      1    pink grapefruit
      1    blood orange
      1    navel orange
    1/4 c  coriander seeds
    1/4 c  black peppercorns
      2    sticks cinnamon
      5    cloves
      1    sprig fresh rosemary
           For the simple syrup
      1 lb dark brown sugar
           Water
      3 L  red wine
           For the assembly
           funnel
      8    750 ml wine bottles with the
           labels removed
           ladle for filling the
           bottles
           Narrow corks (the oldest and
           most dried out looking in
           the house)

One of the things I've decided to make this year is a red wine based
amaro (that's an Italian bitter herbal after-dinner drink for your
country asses) based on my success making regular bitters for myself
and Marlow.

The recipe I'm imitating is that of a Chinotto, which is an amaro
who's bittering agent is the strange chinotto orange that all those
black Pellegrino products are based on. I like this kind of thing at
the end of a big meal with a funky dessert. It's not something that
you'd drink all the time but I'd actually like my present to last
longer than the 19 minutes it takes most of my friends to down a
bottle of wine. I'm shooting for something between six months and
"oh, man I totally forgot about that stuff."

The problem with making real chinotto is that the chinotto orange is
more-or-less impossible to get even in New York so I improvised with
burnt citrus and some basic spices.

Right. So first you'll need to make the base. Now take all the
citrus, slice and burn it according to last year's classic post on
burned citrus.

Combine all of the ingredients together and store in a 1/2 gallon
sized, air-tight container, giving it a shake everyday for 1
month. That month over yet? Great. Now go buy a 3 liter box of VRAC
or some other such decent quality red win that comes in bulk. I
actually used some painfully cheap Cabernet from the Puerto Rican
liquor store by the JMZ Marcy stop and it seemed to work fine but in
a perfect world I'd use something better. Now you need to make the
dark simple syrup. Take one box of dark brown Domino sugar (one
pound) and combine it with an equal amount of water in a sauce pan
and heat until the sugar dissolves and is clear, not cloudy and
allow to cool.

Got that? OK, I'd like to tell you that there is some sort of
formula to combining these ingredients that yield a perfect amaro...
but there isn't, you're going to have to eyeball it. What I did was
fill the bottles about 1/5th of the way with the dark simple syrup
then fill the bottles to just under half way with the amaro base.
Now fill to the shoulder of the bottle with red wine, shake and give
it a taste. It should be well balanced but on the bitter side. Too
sweet? Add more amaro base. Too wine-y? Add more Amaro base. Taste
like the Sleep of the Black Kali? More syrup please.

Bottles filled with a pleasantly bitter, if a little raw, dark
liquid? Great. Get corking. I tried a method that involves boiling
the corks that I read about somewhere in the blogosphere. It failed.
Unless you have a corking device you should seek out the narrowest
and most dried out of the corks sitting around the house. Make sure
they are real corks though, none of that plastic shit please. Now
take the narrowest end of your narrowest cork and carefully drive it
down into the bottle until it is nearly flush with the top. If you
want to make fancy you can go to a art supply store and get some
non-toxic sealing wax of a suitably snazzy color and melt it in a
double boiler made from a small sauce pan and a tin foil reservoir,
then dip your bottle tops in the wax a few times to get that good
and runny Chianti wax bottle look.

Once you've completed your home made amaros you simply have to label
them and watch the eyes of your relations light up with puzzled
bewilderment when they realize that the thing in their hands is not
actually a Dunkin' Donuts gift card with Rachael Ray on the side of
it.

Merry Christmas!

Posted by tom.murder.murder.marcyville.


  From: Http://Groceryguy.Blogspot.Com  
 
MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

YK Jim


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